54th Berlin International Film Festival
5-15 February 2004

BERLINALE AWARDS OF THE ECUMENICAL JURY 2004

Members of the Ecumenical Jury:
Julienne Munyaneza (Rwanda, at present London), Marjorie Suchocky (USA), Oldrich Selucky (Czech Republic), Frank Frost (USA), Lothar Strüber (Germany), Werner Schneider-Quindeau (President, Germany)

Since 1992, the international film organizations of the Protestant and Catholic Churches – INTERFILM and SIGNIS – have been represented by the Ecumenical Jury. It awards its main prize to a film entered in the Competition. It awards two other prizes of 2.500 Euro to a film from the Panorama (courtesy of the German Bishops Conference) and Forum (courtesy of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany) respectively. The prizes go to directors who have displayed genuine artistic talent and succeeded in portraying actions or human experiences that comply with the Gospels or sensitize viewers to spiritual, human or social values.

The Awards of the Ecumenical Jury go to:

Competition:

AE FOND KISS by Ken Loach, United Kingdom

The lovestory between a young man of pakistan decent and a catholic schoolteacher gives an impressive example for the cultural, religious und social barriers, which has to overcome for a common future for people from different cultural backgrounds. A plea for mutual acceptance and intercultural understanding.

Synopsis:
Casim Khan is a successful DJ in Glasgow. The son of Pakistani immigrants, he works in the city’s coolest venues and dreams of buying his own club. His parents Tariq and Sadia are devout Muslims; fiercely protective of their family and their traditions, they plan for him to marry his beautiful cousin Jasmine, who is soon to arrive in the UK. Their plans go awry, however, when Casim meets Roisin. A teacher at his sister Tahara’s school, Roisin is different from any girl he’s ever met. She’s gorgeous, intelligent and definitely possesses a mind of her own. She and Casim soon fall deeply in love. But Casim knows all too well that, even if he wasn’t due to marry, his parents would never accept a ‘goree’ – a European. As a Catholic, Roisin finds that her own community, more than a little skeptical about her love for Casim, doesn’t prove very supportive either. When their relationship is discovered, the repercussions of the scandal reach far and wide and sparks fly as cultures clash and personalities collide. The Glasgow-Asian community was, admits Loach, “a world I didn’t know much about. I had to listen and ask a lot of questions, to gain a sense of other people and find the common denominators. You find that the fundamental politics of families are the same underneath – the difference is in how they are expressed.”  (Festival information)

In addition, the Ecumenical Jury awards a Special Recommendation to the film

SVJEDOCI (WITNESSES) by Vinko Brezan, Croatia

This film uses in an excellent way the artistic means to express the moral complexity of a war situation. It show that even here acting as a human being is possible. The only way of working on a peaceful future is taking risks for protecting life and respecting even the enemies as human persons.

Synopsis:
When Jurica Pavišcíc’s first novel, “Alabaster Sheep“, was published in 1997 it was the source of great controversy in Croatia. Here, for the first time, was a writer who had put into words his own experiences of the war (Pavišcíc himself served as a soldier for nine months in 1992/93) in a highly critical way – without even a hint of false heroics. Pavišcíc’s novel takes place in the coastal town of Split in 1992. A Croatian unit is in the process of committing an act of sabotage in nearby Herzegovina. Private Krešso has been instructed to lead the unit through the minefield he himself laid some time ago. Krešso loses a leg and two of his comrades lose their lives. Baríc, the brother of one of the soldiers killed by during this action, lays the blame at Krešso’s door. After several long periods spent convalescing at various clinics, Krešso finally returns to Split where he finds work but is shunned by his old mates. Meanwhile, a group of Krešso’s ex-comrades led by Baríc decide to commit an act of revenge by attacking the supposedly empty house of a Serb businessman. However, contrary to expectation, the businessman is at home when they attack and is shot dead by the gunmen. The assassins abduct the businessman’s eleven-year-old daughter and hold her prisoner in a garage. By chance, Krešso hears about the attack and manages to convince one of the kidnappers to let the girl go. The girl is handed over to Krešso so that he can send her out of the country to her relatives abroad. But before Krešso’s plan succeeds, Baríc sets out hard on the heels of the two refugees . . .  (Festival information)

Panorama:

MI PIACE LAVORARE / I LIKE TO WORK (MOBBING) by Francesca Comencini, Italy

The film depicts a woman suffering economic injustice and abuse of corporate power in her work place. The directors compellingly approriate imagery underscores the right to justice and human dignity.

Synopsis:
Anna is a secretary. Recently, the company where she works has been taken over by a multinational. At the firm’s get-together, the company employees all have a drink to celebrate the merger. Anna is the only employee who is not greeted personally by the new director – but she doesn’t think anything of it. However, this bagatelle turns out to be just the beginning of a process that makes Anna’s working life hell. At first her colleagues’ attitude towards her is barely noticeable but, before long, Anna is convinced that their merciless behaviour is part of some kind of a conspiracy to engineer her dismissal. And so, for example, Anna suddenly finds herself sitting alone at a table in the canteen during lunch breaks, or she notices that nobody seems to want to drink a cup of coffee with her in the morning, or that the desk at which she is used to working has “mistakenly” been assigned to somebody else. And then, one day, Anna’s brief is changed; all of a sudden she is required to handle the kind of tasks she did when she first started her job, such as spending hours next to the photocopier – an utterly mindless activity. Moreover, whenever she asks to be put to better use, her requests are met with nothing but insults. Anna is a divorcee and a single mother. She and Morgana have always got on well. Or at least they did up until now. Then, all at once, Anna collapses and, under the pressure of constant humiliation, she has a nervous breakdown and falls ill. From this point on, she stops worrying about Morgana – although her friend could just perhaps be the key to finding a solution for the whole situation . . . (Festival information)

Forum of International Young Cinema:

FOLLE EMBELLIE (A WONDERFUL SPELL) by Dominique Cabrera, France

“Folle embellie” (A wonderful spell) is simultaneously an intriguing story and a compelling metaphor. It contrasts the insanity of war with the insanity of mentally troubled persons and raises possibilities for healing through community and human relations.